Letter Of Map Amendment

New flood maps force insurance requirement

WATERLOO, Iowa --- A change in federal flood hazard maps is starting to hit some home owners in the pocketbook.

Ward 5 City Councilman Ron Welper, who lives in and represents the new westside area affected by the change, said several of his constituents told him at least one lending institution has started sending out letters demanding they get flood insurance as a condition of their mortgage or home equity loans.

Those changes were expected after the Federal Emergency Management Agency adopted new flood insurance rate maps which took effect July 18.

About 200 homes and businesses located above the Dry Run Creek Arch --- an underground storm sewer running from Liberty Park to the Cedar River at Sixth Street --- were moved into the 100-year flood plain despite objections and appeals from city officials.

The insurance cost is anywhere from $1,200 to $1,600 a year, payable up front, and could have a chilling effect on the city's ability to encourage new housing development in the neighborhood, Welper said.

"This pretty much takes care of Williston Field and any homes being built there," he said of the former school property at West Eighth and Allen streets, which had been rezoned for housing development but was later added to the 100-year flood zone.

A property designated in a 100-year flood plain, or Zone A on a flood insurance rate map, is required to buy flood insurance when receiving any federally insured mortgage.

City Planner Aric Schroeder said the city is hoping to hire a consultant to gather more information about the flood plain and determine what can be done to get the entire Dry Run Creek Arch area removed from the 100-year flood plain.

Mayor Buck Clark said he supports that effort because the current situation is bad for individual property owners and the city's development objectives.

"I would very much like to see us find funding for that study," he said. "It's going to affect home sales; it's going to affect a lot of things.

Flood Maps and Google Earth : InfoCentral

FEMA has a pretty good online mapping tool for flood insurance maps but if you are a fan of Google Earth, there is a nice overlay for that too. You need to have downloaded Google Earth to your computer. Then you simply add on one of FEMA’s map layers to the program through another download here .

FEMA offers two free overlays for Google Earth: “Stay Dry” is a focused application that provides basic flood hazard map information from FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer for an address. It allows you to view flood hazard zones, cross sections and their labels, community names and boundaries, Flood Insurance Rate Map numbers and boundaries, and Letter of Map Revision case numbers and boundaries.

“FEMA NFHL” offers multiple layers of information. It is a general application that provides for the display of flood hazard zones, floodways, Coastal Barrier Resources System and Otherwise Protected Area units, community boundaries and names, base flood elevations, cross sections and coastal transects and their labels, hydraulic and flood control structures, and Flood Insurance Rate Map and Letter of Map Revision boundaries and numbers. Additional reference layers include the status of NFHL data availability, point locations for Letters of Map Amendment (LOMAs) and Letters of Map Revision Based on Fill (LOMR–Fs), Q3 base flood, and subbasin hydrologic units. You control the information displayed by turning layers on and off. A basic knowledge of Google Earth and FEMA flood hazard information will help users of this application.

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